In August 2013, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) reported a backlog of 591,665 patent applications waiting to be examined and an average total pendency (time from filing to end of examination) of 29.4 months. In order to reduce these statistics, the USPTO developed four programs designed to speed up the examination of patent applications. These programs are Track One Prioritized Examination, Accelerated Examination (AE), Petitions to Make Special and the Patent Prosecution Highway (PPH).